Looks like Blumhouse is doing three new Exorcist movies, starting with The Exorcist: Believer coming to theaters October 2023
(https://www.syfy.com/sites/syfy/files/styles/scale_640_no_scale/public/2023/07/screen_shot_2023-07-20_at_11.45.08_am.png)
The Exorcist (1973) was groundbreaking, scary, disturbing, controversial. Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977) was a failure. Exorcist III (1990) was heading in the right direction. Exorcist: The Beginning (2004) was awful and Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist (2005) a snoring bore.
The Exorcist: Believer trailer did not much for me. It looks like your polished, stylized average horror movie.
Any thoughts?
All three original Exorcist movies were banned here for many years so people here never saw them in cinemas until they were un-banned and released to home video. I liked all three but the new movie trailer left me feeling a bit bleh.
sounds like they're just tagging the Exorcist name on for clout... I mean, what exactly does the EXORCIST universe even consist of? part 2 is completely gaga, and I'm pretty sure part 3 wasn't even supposed to be part of the franchise, and got re-branded
(https://i.postimg.cc/Gt0fsPZS/363337495-10160768013422534-6711099816094647277-n.jpg)
From Simpsons Bortposting
Quote from: zombie no.one on July 27, 2023, 12:46:34 PM
sounds like they're just tagging the Exorcist name on for clout... I mean, what exactly does the EXORCIST universe even consist of? part 2 is completely gaga, and I'm pretty sure part 3 wasn't even supposed to be part of the franchise, and got re-branded
Nobody thinks of anything but the first movie when they think of the Exorcist.
Quote from: Trevor on July 27, 2023, 12:43:08 PM
All three original Exorcist movies were banned here for many years so people here never saw them in cinemas until they were un-banned and released to home video. I liked all three but the new movie trailer left me feeling a bit bleh.
:buggedout:
Finally, someone else who likes Exorcist 2!
Quote from: bob on July 30, 2023, 02:08:04 AM
Quote from: Trevor on July 27, 2023, 12:43:08 PM
All three original Exorcist movies were banned here for many years so people here never saw them in cinemas until they were un-banned and released to home video. I liked all three but the new movie trailer left me feeling a bit bleh.
:buggedout:
Finally, someone else who likes Exorcist 2!
Count me in that camp, too. (Another typically arbitrary/contrary opinion I hold.)
I watched the first one, thought it was overrated and didn't bother with any of the others.
Quote from: M.10rda on July 30, 2023, 08:52:47 AM
Quote from: bob on July 30, 2023, 02:08:04 AM
Quote from: Trevor on July 27, 2023, 12:43:08 PM
All three original Exorcist movies were banned here for many years so people here never saw them in cinemas until they were un-banned and released to home video. I liked all three but the new movie trailer left me feeling a bit bleh.
:buggedout:
Finally, someone else who likes Exorcist 2!
Count me in that camp, too. (Another typically arbitrary/contrary opinion I hold.)
Me three. EXORCIST is a better movie, obviously, but if you gave me the choice of rewatching it or EXORCIST 2, I think I'd pick 2 every time.
^ Sick, sick people. :twirl:
me four... I put it in my 'top 10 first sequels' list in the thread I made the other day
If anything, The Exorcist has aged very well.
I love watching millennials on youtube reacting to The Exorcist for the first time. From the 50+ reaction videos I've seen pretty much all reactors are horrified and freak out :teddyr:
Recommended viewing, very entertaining :thumbup:
Quote from: claws on July 30, 2023, 02:29:12 PM
If anything, The Exorcist has aged very well.
I love watching millennials on youtube reacting to The Exorcist for the first time. From the 50+ reaction videos I've seen pretty much all reactors are horrified and freak out :teddyr:
Recommended viewing, very entertaining :thumbup:
I know young people who haven't seen it, I tell them to and they tell me later that it scared them. Then I hit them with the info that the film is fact based. :buggedout: :wink:
Quote from: bob on July 30, 2023, 02:08:04 AM
Quote from: Trevor on July 27, 2023, 12:43:08 PM
All three original Exorcist movies were banned here for many years so people here never saw them in cinemas until they were un-banned and released to home video. I liked all three but the new movie trailer left me feeling a bit bleh.
:buggedout:
Finally, someone else who likes Exorcist 2!
Exorcist 2 is in my top 5 worst mainstream movies of all time.
The first one is essential viewing to all horror fans. When I first saw it I was like 10, and it nearly made me renounce my just found atheism.
Number 2... I actually like some of the ideas thrown in there, and the part of the story set in Africa. However the rest is pure s**t. I mean, the get-into-other-people's-brains machine, Richard Burton phoning it in... but the worst is the final act, when they try to remake the first film and it's as bad as a SNL parody. I mean, Burton talking with possessed Regan's voice? A teen Linda Blair trying to act seductively? Blech.
I like Part III too. Nice creepy thriller that actually has connections to the first movie. I wish the DC was available in better quality, because I can't tell which version of the movie I prefer.
The latest film... Renny Harlin's version is awful. The man can do decent work now and then, but here he was thrown in too deep. Nothing makes much sense, and the final exorcism is pretty much a boxing match between young Merrin and a CGI dummy.
As for Paul Schrader's cut... I really like the man's work -seriously, watch "First Reformed" and "Master Gardener"- even if he comes off as a kind of dick in recent interviews. And who could forget the trainwreck that was "The Canyons". But his cut of "Dominion" is a mixed bag. It starts out well enough, but later there's not enough horror and too much talking.
I see there's a black family in the new movie, and according to Eddie Murphy, black people are admirably sensible around the supernatural and don't sit around contemplating whether there's a reasonable explanation for what's going on, they just get out of the haunted house, or I presume in this case, immediately call in an exorcist. Good for them! (So what's the new film's running time, then?)
I just watched a documentary about all the hullabaloo during the original 1973 film release.
What seems tame compared to today's cinematic bloodbaths was very shocking back then.
I love the first one, did not like the second one even in a Bad movie way, and found the third one creepy. I am looking forward to the new one.
Quote from: RCMerchant on October 02, 2023, 10:15:47 AM
I just watched a documentary about all the hullabaloo during the original 1973 film release.
What seems tame compared to today's cinematic bloodbaths was very shocking back then.
I love the first one, did not like the second one even in a Bad movie way, and found the third one creepy. I am looking forward to the new one.
The Exorcist and its sequels were all banned here :buggedout:
For the life of me I never saw what was scary about any of these movies. If anything I saw the first one as a movie about self-sacrificing heroism.
Quote from: Neville on September 26, 2023, 01:16:54 PM
Number 2... I actually like some of the ideas thrown in there, and the part of the story set in Africa. However the rest is pure s**t. I mean, the get-into-other-people's-brains machine, Richard Burton phoning it in... but the worst is the final act, when they try to remake the first film and it's as bad as a SNL parody. I mean, Burton talking with possessed Regan's voice? A teen Linda Blair trying to act seductively? Blech.
Exorcist 2 is a classic nothingburger. It has some interesting toppings (Ennio Morricone score), weird toppings (locusts swarm, brainwaves & synchronizer) and plenty of cheese (Linda Blair, bad acting). Once you take a bite you'll notices there's no meat. You're left with these toppings that Exorcist 2: The Heretic supporters call "inventive", "amazing" and "better than the original."
I always said Exorcist 2 is a lot of things but scary it is not. or creepy. or disturbing. or good.
Oh, it's definitely not scary. That's for sure.
That Morricone score is the business tho.
^ Back in '73, they used to play "Tubular Bells" on the radio!
I heard it before I seen the movie! I saw it at the Strand in Paw Paw, MI in 1974!
I was 12. They let kids in for horror movies, rated R or not. That was they're biggest audiance!
(https://i.imgur.com/UaWBjrX.jpg) (https://lunapic.com)
Da bomb. 21% at RT for The Exorcist: Believer.
I have a movie reviewer friend who gives every movie a good review. Every single one.
He gave the new EXORCIST a bad review.
mark kermode's scathing review of BELIEVER.
http://youtu.be/9EYocIaYFYE?si=Zh6QpTVRcC4LqcQq (http://youtu.be/9EYocIaYFYE?si=Zh6QpTVRcC4LqcQq)
Whoah!
David Gordon Green?!
Actually I shouldn't feign surprise.
ALL THE REAL GIRLS and GEORGE WASHINGTON are two of my favorite from the 21st century, but DGG clearly smokes too much pot and takes too many script notes from Danny McBride.
Maybe the EXORCIST franchise IS cursed... to plague good directors (Boorman, Schrader, Green) w/ the worst reviews of their careers.
From hearing you folks, maybe I'll pass. I'm very leery of sequels to classics. But I try to be hopeful.
It made $27m over the weekend against a $30m budget. Blumhouse & Universal paid a total of $400m for the franchise :buggedout:
:bouncegiggle: I don't understand a lick of movie math these days... break that down for me. Is it good news because it's almost broken even or bad news because they needed it to gross over $430 million dollars in order to begin to see a profit?
Since this thread reminded me of Schrader's ill-fated "Dominion", I re-watched it last night. And I have to admit I found it quite enjoyable. It just happens to be a sort of exotic religious drama rather than a horror movie with spinning heads, which explains the studio's extreme reaction.
(https://i.imgur.com/MGLYOFv.png)
Not that it is some sort of lost masterpiece or anything. It's certainly one of Schrader's weaker efforts and it has costed him years to bounce back from the whole thing. Even in its final form, it's a film that feels rather incomplete, and many scenes feature some of the worst CGI I've ever seen. It seems that Schrader had to sue Morgan Creek to get his version of the movie released, and in retaliation they gave him close to zero dollars for post-production.
(https://i.imgur.com/mulZNJc.png)
I now wonder if I should re-watch Renny Harlin's version to get a clearer picture of the fiasco, but I remember it being mind-numbingly awful.
As for the new film... I know it's fun to mock Hollywood, and it wouldn't hurt that they stopped cranking up endless sequels to classics, but I think we should wait until we see it. Who knows, maybe it doesn't turn out to be THAT bad.
The Beginning came on tv last night. Didn't seem especially terrible and even had some ok performances. With the makeup on the possessed woman though I kept thinking "She looks like she is a Deadite from Evil Dead".
I only remember that it had loads of gore, and that the exorcism involved more hand-to-hand combat that some of Steven Seagal's movies.
I wouldn't say it was a film worth seeking out for a rewatch. Just kind of a standard horror film.
Quote from: Neville on October 09, 2023, 04:51:16 AM
I only remember that it had loads of gore, and that the exorcism involved more hand-to-hand combat that some of Steven Seagal's movies.
:bouncegiggle: :bouncegiggle:
Quote from: M.10rda on October 08, 2023, 09:23:24 PM
:bouncegiggle: I don't understand a lick of movie math these days... break that down for me. Is it good news because it's almost broken even or bad news because they needed it to gross over $430 million dollars in order to begin to see a profit?
Universal and Blumhouse bought the franchise rights for a trilogy from Morgan Creek back in July 2021 for $400M. If they want their money back + profit all three movies have to kick a$$ at the box office. Though there's still streaming and home video, so they might pull in a decent amount of money from that.
Got it, Claws, thanks. After I posted my somewhat snarky request I reflected on it and realized they planned to make a whole bunch of EXORCIST movies for their $400 million, but of course if this one tanks badly and everyone hates it, maybe they won't make more. Oh who am I kidding, of course they'll make more, no matter what....... :bluesad:
The Exorcist Believer is quite good but that ending: oy :bluesad:
QuoteDomestic (52.9%)
$44,926,950
International (47.1%)
$40,037,000
Worldwide
$84,963,950
Approaching $90m worldwide in its 2nd week. Haters call it underperforming, supporters call it a hit. I'd say they are off to a good start. I will eventually check this out when available to watch at home.
I finally gave it a chance. Not good. If I didn't know better, I'd think the film was made by people who don't understand the horror genre or the Exorcist series. Despite this, I sort of enjoyed it at first. It's nothing groundbreaking and there's a general lack of scares, but I found it tolerable. The real problem arrives when we reach the exorcism stage and the film is no yet scary. And for some reason political correctness made its way into the climax as well, with priests from different denominations and even a voodoo... priestess? lady? doing their thing in unison.
I normally don't care when people criticise contemporary films for being "woke", but this was ridiculous. I mean, if help against demons is so widely available, where's the threat? It was funnier when the Catholic church had to send somebody from the other end of the world.
^ I'm not hyped for it at all. Exorsicm movies are not good even in a BAD way anymore. Gimme back the 70's with stuff like BEYOND THE DOOR (1974) or ABBY (1974).
(https://i.imgur.com/M2jocZ8.jpg) (https://lunapic.com)
Quote from: Neville on October 25, 2023, 01:15:55 PM
It's nothing groundbreaking and there's a general lack of scares, but I found it tolerable. The real problem arrives when we reach the exorcism stage and the film is no yet scary.
Still haven't seen the new one thus can have no opinion, and have generally tried to keep my dumb unpopular opinions about the original out of this thread.
Just 'cause you mentioned it, though, the "real problem" you cite w/ this new film is the same problem I have w/ the original. :smile: Saw it as a child (sub-10) and thought it was long, slow, and then only mildly exciting at the end. In adulthood I revisited it (around the time of the re-release), presuming I'd been too young to appreciate a masterfully subtle horror film in childhood. Although I found the exposition more tense and involving, I honestly find the eponymous climax to be....... laughably stagey and unfrightening. Alas, perhaps this is where the Horror genre becomes largely subjective: if you can watch THE EXORCIST and feel scared, it's "scary" to you, and otherwise, it just isn't, and thus it fails to work.
Whatever else I expect from the new entry, good or bad, I won't expect to be scared.......
Well, fear it's a very personal thing. Just like the stuff that makes you laugh or your sexuality. It doesn't get more personal than that.
Still, "The Exorcist" is widely considered to be a terrifying movie, even by today's standards. It's been years since I last saw it, but it has scared me s**tless in past occasions. So far the only one in the series that has lived up to the reputation of the original is part III. "Dominion" is interesting, but in its present state it's more a work in progress than a finished film.
From what I vaguely recall as a child, The Exorcist played on TV in Australia in the late 70s and was definitely Not For Children(tm). It has been decades since its release, and I've never watched any of the franchise, although I kind of recognize parodies and homages when I see them, like the exorcism scene in The Boondocks.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=06cVE9lD5WE (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=06cVE9lD5WE)